Within the arts and cultural sector, a paradoxical landscape exists. While creativity is central to the twenty-first-century economy, arts professionals often face precarious circumstances. Despite a growing number of students pursuing arts management courses, there remains a dearth of support for navigating the sector's enigmatic terrain. However, by understanding three interconnecting concepts, Careers, Community and Leadership, aspiring arts workers can help build their knowledge in a way that provides a strong career foundation. This talk will take a practical look at how to build arts careers. Effective leadership is central to career success and community has an integral role in equipping leaders with the necessary leadership skills and identity while serving as a wellspring of career guidance. The Careers, Community and Leadership model offers actionable strategies to empower arts management students, and practitioners on their quest for professional fulfilment while also focusing on building sustainable organisations with equitable employment.

Personally, I feel that the role of the Arts Manager should be defined by these three aspects:

1. Firstly, to activate the arts to help benefit, impact and inspire in society, communities, businesses, industries and culture.
2. Secondly, create an ecosystem where the arts can thrive, and benefit societies, communities, businesses, industries and culture.
3. To Identify, Innovate and Initiate new means, methods, modalities to create, engage, activate and develop art, the arts, artists.

My take on their professional career trajectories and developments is that there has to be a re-focus on key strengths that truly define the role of the Arts Manager. With advances in technology, Economic shifts in all our industries, and the importance of culture as opposed to construct, there has to be focus on developing strengths, and no longer skills. For example, AI has changed how we now create content, art or design. Solo-craft-preneurs are the new Forbes 30 under 30s. And today, we most likely do business with someone we can relate to and like, how they can inspire, and no longer what skills they know. There now has to be a shift from Designer or Editor to Storyteller. From Director or producer to Creative Leader. And from Know-it-All, to Who-you-know. The motivation hasn't changed, and I personally feel won't, and should stay true that we want the arts to provide a positive impact to society, community and industry. The refocus once again, goes deeper into "why we do what we do'' and the problem that the arts is trying to solve.

My foundations for my career were built in Lasalle - it was from my time (and the rooms) in Lasalle that I started The Second Breakfast Company, a theatre company which has only continued to grow each year and it is with my connections from the school that I’ve also somehow managed to build a career in arts media, having spent most of my career being part of two major arts media platforms here in Singapore - ArtsEquator and Esplanade Offstage. I’ve grown a lot as an arts manager since I was just a BAM student and count myself as somewhat of a unicorn to have stayed in the arts. A lot of my motivations and visions are rooted in what I do with The Second Breakfast Company, and the impact that our work and platform is able to make for the next generation of theatre makers and audiences. I am also very motivated by creative possibilities; of new ideas and finding new ways of doing things, of the networks we can build and what we can do beyond our shores. My personal understanding of what an arts manager is in today’s eco-systems is that they help make things happen - whether in the capacities of a leader, facilitator, creator, connector, promoter or even supporter - an arts manager does what needs to be done to make things happen.

Occupying the intersections of fine arts and performance, Benedict, a transdisciplinary art practitioner, incorporates principles of theatre and festival management to enrich the fine arts landscape. His overarching vision and driving motivation materialise in elevating fine arts practice, transcending individual artistic expressions to coordinate expansive, large-scale projects and witness their flourishing impact. In the contemporary milieu, the pivotal role of the arts manager emerges as that of a skillful translator, adeptly conveying a visionary essence to resonate with human experiences and foster profound connections with audiences.